The Road Always Traveled
An April 23 press release sent on behalf of Ron Barca was titled, “District 1 Clark County Commissioner Candidate Ron Barca Takes Road Less Traveled.”
District 1 Clark County Commissioner candidate Ron Barca announced he will exercise his right to collect voter signatures by petition in lieu of paying a $1022.88 candidate filing fee to the Clark County Auditor’s Office.
“I want to use the campaign contributions so generously given to me for my effort to become County Commissioner, rather than turn over part of those donations to the County Auditor for filing fees,” Barca says.
Barca must raise an equal amount of valid signatures on the ratio of one signature per dollar to accomplish the task and is aiming to collect at least 1,250 signatures at various businesses located throughout Clark County as well as in person. Signatures must be presented to the Auditor’s Office on May 14th.
Pledging to submit signatures instead of paying a filing fee — which is 1 percent of the annual salary of the position — is unusual, and I wrote a story.
This week, guess who wrote a check out for $1022.88?
When asked why he changed his plans, Barca, a Battle Ground resident who works as a lean practitioner at Boeing Commercial Aircraft in Gresham, Ore., wrote in an email that he didn’t change his plans.
“My plan was to run a grass roots campaign that includes meeting people and raise signatures to waive my filing fee. I had many volunteers help with the effort and they all met hundreds of people. Those people now know my name. I do not spend the funds entrusted to me lightly, but my campaign will continue and I will press on fund raising and campaigning to win,” Barca wrote.
Barca, a Democrat, is one of three people challenging Commissioner Tom Mielke along with Democrat Joe Tanner and Bob Freund, an independent.
As for raising money (including loans and in-kind donations), Tanner is in the lead.
According to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, Tanner has $49,910 to Mielke’s $10,486.64 and Barca’s $3,175.26. Freund has yet to file with the PDC.
